Outfitting the King: Inside Graceland Live’s Audio

New venue is part of large expansion effort at Elvis Presley's homestead in Memphis, TN.

Memphis, TN (March 6, 2019)—Elvis Presley may have died more than 40 years ago, but his legendary Memphis home, Graceland, continues to attract more than half a million visitors every year, each anxious to get a glimpse into the private life of one of the 20 century’s most omnipresent yet enigmatic musical icons. In recent years, the attraction has been expanding, and will likely continue to do so in the near future. That doesn’t mean that the famed Jungle Room is getting an addition; rather, the site and immediate surrounding area is getting built up with new official attractions to draw visitors.

To say that there’s big money in play might be an understatement. On Tuesday, March 5, the Memphis City Council announced that Elvis Presley Enterprises is planning $100 million worth of expansion at Graceland (and is looking for incentives to do so). Some of that would materialize as hotel rooms, cabins and 80,000 square feet of sound stages, according to the Memphis Business Journal.

That would come on the heels of Elvis Presley’s Memphis, a 200,000-square-foot entertainment complex that just opened in the last few months. While the facility includes memorabilia displays and the like, its center point is Graceland Soundstage, a new venue created in partnership with Live Nation, that can accommodate more than 2,000 fans. Appointed with 20’ x 12’ screens at stageside, the venue opened around the turn of the year and has a first-year lineup that will include the likes of Boz Scaggs, Brian Setzer, Buckcherry, Chubby Checker, Frank Turner, and George Thorogood.

All of them will be heard through a sizable Adamson Systems Engineering S-Series system PA. Designed and installed by Eighth Day Sound (Highland Heights, OH), the system sports hangs of a dozen S10 cabinets at stage left and right, while a quartet of E219 subwoofers sit under the stage for low-end support. Ensuring that the front rows don’t miss out on audio coverage, four IS7p point source cabinets are used as front-fills at the stage lip.

Adamson’s presence can be found onstage as well, as stage monitoring also is provided via the brand, with a dozen M12-A two-way monitor speakers and a pair of Point 215 subwoofers for drum subs available for every act that graces Graceland Soundstage’s stage.

While installations go in around the world every day, the significance of becoming a high-profile part of Graceland was not lost on CEO Marc Bertrand, who said in a statement, “The opportunity to be a part of the history of rock and roll at Graceland is a special one. We’re proud to count Eighth Day Sound as one of our partners, and join them in welcoming Graceland to the Adamson Network.”